Fall

If it was a normal year, Tonks would have been celebrating. It was her absolute favourite time of year.

But she couldn't even bring herself to smile.

There were a few things contributing to this. The one that had lasted for a while was depression. Her cousin had died at the hands of his own cousin only a few months ago. Part of her felt like she didn't have the right to mourn the death of Sirius. She knew she wasn't as close to him as others were. They'd only met a while before that. Yet…it still hurt that he was gone. When she'd started to get to know him she'd thought she'd have much more time with him. Maybe finally have a family member on her mother's side who didn't hate muggles. But those dreams were whisked away, taking a piece of her heart with her. Perhaps it wasn't as big as others, but part was still missing.

Along with that there was the worry. Worry, with he who should not be….no, Voldemort's return. Many people, good people, were going missing. Most of them had nothing to do with him or the death eaters. She wondered if they were hurting people just to spite the Order. Couldn't they just leave people in peace? What good did it do? No, it was obvious what it did. It caused a worry through the people, the exact worry she was feeling. She wanted to kick herself, feeling like she was falling right into their plans.

At the moment however, her adamant feeling was confusion and stress. Why has he called me?

Trudging silently through the forbidden forest she went over the letter Lupin had sent her in her head. Come to the Forbidden Forest, by the tallest tree you can find. Hurry!-Lupin. Yeah, because that wasn't ominous. The tallest tree she could find? Did he have any idea how many trees there were? No, of course he knew. He'd been hiding with werewolves for months. But what could be so urgent that he'd call her out with such vague instructions and no explanation? Of course she came right away, but some more information would be nice.

Not even the warm colours of fall were able to cheer her nerves. She'd always loved the sight of the orange, yellow and red leaves in fall. As she walked through they fell all around her, making piles in the ground and crunching under her feet. When she was little she'd try and catch them and make her hair change to fit the colour. It had made her feel connected with the world, however cheesy that was. She was just a kid at the time. Even when she'd grown out of that, she continued to look on the leaves with fondness.

She was just too worried to pay any attention to them. And that was saying something.

Tallest tree…tallest tree….Where is the tallest tree? That big guy had said it would be right around here! In desperation she'd asked the man others called Hagrid for help, and he'd told her what tree he personally thought was the tallest. Eventually she found her way to the one he had spoken of. It was already surrounded by piles of leaves that were so tall they were bigger than her. One of them suspiciously looked like it was moving. She didn't pay attention to that. There was Lupin that she needed to worry about.

Only problem was, when she got there, Lupin was not there to greet her. WHY IS HE NOT HERE, WHAT HAPPENED DID HE GET HURT? Though she hadn't been told much, she knew enough about the dangers of working undercover against werewolves. She felt her hair turn sheet white from her fear against her will.

"Lupin? LUPIN!" There was no answer, just the rush of wind that swept past her. No. She could not lose Lupin. Not him, definitely not him. "LUPIN!"

"ROAR!"

Gasping in a very un-aurora like way, she fell on her back in terror. A body jumped out of leaves, scaring the living daylights out of her. Before she could even register what just happened she snatched her wand from her coat. "S-stpupdify!" The body was thrown back against the tree, letting out a loud grunt as he fell back into the leaves. Still shocked and gasping, she pushed away all the trees to get a better look at her attacker.

A pair of hands were held up. "Tonks, don't attack! It's just me, it's just Lupin!"

Immediately she stopped. But she didn't put her wand down until Lupin fully emerged from the pile of leaves. He was wearing the same tattered clothes he normally did and sported a few scratches on his hands and around his neck. Other than that, he was fine. Absolutely perfectly fine. No life threatening situation, no dark secret to share, nothing to have made her worry so much. "Lupin! Why did you just jump out at me like that? And why did you call me all the way down here if nothing's wrong? You look fine!" She was going to say 'handsome,' but luckily she bit her lip before it could betray her.

He brushed a few leaves off of his coat as he stepped out of the large pile. Was it her imagination, or was he blushing. "I didn't call you out for an emergency. Everything's fine. I called you out here to…to try and cheer you up." Tonk's felt her mouth drop open. Lupin hurried to explain. "You've been so depressed lately, I wanted to do something! I haven't been able to talk to you much while I've been undercover and you've been busy lately. So I thought this was the only way I could get you here…" His explanation didn't do her any good. She continued to stare at him as his face got redder and redder with every passing second.

When she finally was able to speak, it was hard to get the words right. "You…Wanted to cheer me up…by scaring me?" He shook his head again.

"N-not to scare you per say…I mean, I guess it would at first, but I thought you would find it funny afterwards…You always loved those practical jokes the weasley boys played…" Was that his attempt at a practical joke? To cut him some slack, he usually was such a serious person. Other than crack a few jokes he never was that much of a jokester. Actually he told her he thought practical jokes were childish and said he'd be ashamed with himself if he ever decided to do one for real.

He'd do that for him?

Ignoring the blush coming to her cheeks she tried to make sense of everything. "You…you're supposed to be undercover! It's not safe for you to see me! Won't they smell me on you or something?"

"Yes."

"It's incredibly risky!"

"Yes."

"You are supposed to be the logical one of the two of us! You're supposed to tell me not to goof off and do something silly, not the other way around!"

"Yes."

"They why did you do it Lupin?"

"Why?"

"Yes, why?" She threw her hands up in the air. "Why would you pull a practical joke when I know you hate practical jokes, why would you risk blowing your cover and why would you send me such a vague message to get me out here? Just to-to cheer me up? Why would you do that just to cheer me up?" Her hair was probably turning a deep shade of red. She made a mental note to change it back to the orange of the leaves later. Lupin stared back at her like she was the one acting out of character, not him.

"Because…Well, for selfish reasons I suppose."

Tonks huffed. "Selfish reasons?"

"Yes, selfish reasons. I just can't stand it when you are upset."

Tonks stopped. He'd…done all that…because he couldn't stand seeing her upset? Did her happiness really mean that much to him? As she tried to deeply analyze every single word of his he went on, saying how she was usually so full of life and that things just weren't the same when she was unhappy. He mentioned how he'd heard her saying how much she loved the leaves changing and did all he could to find a way to get her out of her duties so she could go enjoy them.

"Did you know," He added cheerfully, trying to calm her down. "In muggle lore, it says that whenever you catch a falling leaf, you get a wish." As he spoke a breeze went through the leaves. Reaching out he caught a large yellow one easily. "Right now I wish you would say something. I really didn't mean to upset you."

At his tone Tonks snapped out of her reverie. Slowly, a sneaky grin slipped onto her face. "Oh yeah? Well I," She paused, reaching out and grabbing a red leaf just before it hit the ground. "Hadn't put me in danger just to catch some leaves with me." Her words were harsh, but she couldn't deny the smile on her face.

When he saw it, Lupin felt a little better. "How about I-Hold on." He had to run over a bit to catch an orange one that had tried to escape. "I wish you wouldn't feel so bad about this so you can enjoy it."

"Fine. How about I just wish-Oh, get back here!" Lupin laughed when Tonks sprinted after one very persistent leaf that would not be caught.

She had no chance when it fell to the ground before she could reach it. "You didn't catch it Tonks, you don't get a wish!" He called to her.

"You just wait! More leaves ought to fall soon!" Lupin just continued to laugh.

They didn't know how it happened, but somehow it did. In the middle of the forbidden forest, filled with dangerous creatures that could kill the both on the spot, they started catching leaves. It became some sort of competition, trying to see who could catch the most leaves and who could come up with the most creative wishes. Lupin was quicker so he caught more leaves than her, but she was much more creative with her wishes. Tonks laughed the whole time the leaves covered them. She couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed that much. It definitely was something she missed.

The last wish that Tonks made, she kept a secret from Lupin.

She wished that the fall would last forever.